How does February maintain any kind of self esteem when everyone is so glad to see it go?

Something is clearly amiss in the universe. On Sunday our phone mysteriously stopped working -- I called someone, hung up, the phone rang, and when I picked it up...dead space. I think maybe it was the phone line making one last desperate appeal for help. Anyway, we were on out way out to the Oscars party so we decided to leave it alone and hope it got better on its own (that's the first thing we try with everything that goes wrong around here -- worked out really well with the thing on Angus's foot and the many-headed forked-tongued entity that resided in my lungs for most of February). When we got home Sunday night it still wasn't working, so Matt called first thing in the morning on Monday. They said they couldn't come until Tuesday. I was kind of annoyed (more about the internet than the phone), but whatever. Then a couple of hours later the phone magically started working again. Then a phone guy showed up -- A DAY EARLY. I told him the phone was working again. He went away. Then I called Rogers because Rogers on Demand hadn't been working for a couple of weeks. The woman on the phone did what she could and then said she'd have to send out a technician. On Wednesday. I looked at the calendar and said "you mean -- tomorrow?" She did mean tomorrow. And she said he'd be here between eleven and two and he was here at noon. AND he was funny and nice. AND he fixed the cable.

Isn't that weird?

Now, the cashew recipe for Nicole.

Now, things I learned in February because I jump on Amber's bandwagon whenever I possibly can:

Pneumonia sucks.

Having pneumonia when your husband is in Hickory, North Carolina, or Chamonix, France or basically anywhere except here taking care of the kids while simultaneously waiting on me hand and foot sucks even more.

When your son asks you about the 'restore' function for his ipod touch you shouldn't just tell him what it does, you should ask him why he wants to know, because chances are one of his apps turned the little apple into a skull-like face that he suspects is either a virus that is going to eat up his ipod touch from the inside out or a ghost that is haunting his ipod touch, and he's really worried about being infected/haunted/possessed and is trying desperately to figure out how to make the little skull-face go away. Don't make your ten-year-old cyber-ghost-bust all alone.

President's Choice creamy dill baked lentil crisps are AWESOME.

Eating the whole bag of PC creamy dill baked lentil crisps every time I open one probably negates the whole 'healthier than potato chips' benefit.

I never ever get tired of reading zombie stories.

The perfect days for skating on the canal will always be the days I am too sick to get upright or supervising fifteen little girls throwing paint.

February will eventually give way to March, and the school will call you and 'sorry we didn't manage to get the tickets that your daughter won to the Sens skills competition' will change to 'we have two free tickets to Friday night's Sens game'. And then your son will have to be very very nice to his sister for the rest of the week.

I don't care how March comes in or goes out. As long as it kicks February's ass on the way by.